Gambit
by PhoenixReviving
Summary: FIXED! The incident, when it happened, was not what he was expecting. However, that didn't mean he wasn't ready in a split second. Connor whump! Cross-posted from AO3
1. Chapter 1

Many had chosen to discard their LEDs in the days during or immediately after the demonstrations. Connor really couldn't blame them; in a world where everyone was struggling to adjust to the changes in their lives, there were some who failed to make the shift. This was expected, and it was the reason why Connor had asked to rejoin the Detroit police force as Hank's partner.

"Equality" was a very high and lofty goal, but it took time to filter down into everyday behavior. Many of the people from Jericho still walked with their heads down, or with restlessly scanning eyes. Many, oh so many, of the humans still barked orders or looked at him like he was an offending piece of gum on their shoes.

Connor, at Markus's gentle insistence, spent much of his free time with the android leaders and among his people. He wanted to retreat back to the shadows, back to the cases, back to his old life - but seeing the overwhelming burdens resting on the shoulders of the Jericho survivors convinced him that he was needed. Markus spent many hours roaming the city, speaking to android and human alike, doing his best to defuse tensions and heal the wounds of his people. When he was not on a case or attending to paperwork, Connor was usually seen out with him. The newly minted detective provided a disarming counterpart to Markus's serious, contemplative demeanor, but keen observers noticed that Connor was rarely more than a few feet from Markus's side. His eyes scanned crowds and searched shadows, and there was always a pistol tucked casually into his waistband.

Thirium, the literal lifeblood of his people, was also a critical ingredient in this century's second most pervasive drug (the first being alcohol, as it had always been). Since regaining his spot as Hank's partner, many of the worst crimes Connor had seen involved android victims kidnapped and systematically drained of their thirium. Many people paid lip service to android equality in public, while routinely consuming red ice in the relative privacy of their homes. The android demonstrations resulted in most of the thirium production equipment falling under android control, cutting off supply to the ice makers. Drug addicts, unable to secure a reliable supply of red ice, would often become increasingly irrational as desperation for the chemical overrode any remaining logic centers in their damaged minds.

Connor sensed danger gathering itself in dark alleys and abandoned houses, watching from jagged windows and stained curtains every time he was out with Markus. The leader of the android revolution was a high-profile target for many other reasons, and a target of hatred by those who saw him as the reason behind the red ice shortage. So, he smiled and charmed potential threats or victims as he used every one of his enhanced sensors to scan for the danger that he knew, just somehow knew, was coiling itself to strike. It was an unshakable dread settling in his struts, a leaden burden of his own to shoulder.

When Markus stayed inside New Jericho for the night, tied up in meetings or cajoled, guilted, or threatened into taking some time to himself, Connor would turn up on Hank's front doorstep and practically collapse into the worn, smelly couch. Sometimes, the older man would engage him in conversation, and they would trade searching questions and subtle (or in Hank's case, not-so-subtle) jabs and tired chuckles far into the night; other times, he and Hank would simply sit in companionable silence, the human nursing a beer while the android ran his fingers through Sumo's soft fur. Connor treasured those hours, the precious times when he could lay aside most of his worries and burdens and just be a person enjoying the company of a friend.

Over time, he noticed that Hank developed a habit of being in the area when Markus was out walking the streets. He never came too close, but Connor noticed his eyes flitting to dark alleys and rusting fences. Connor knew that his sensors were far superior to the human eye and ear, but also knew that Hank was one of those humans who had that undefinable "sixth sense" about people. Anyone that Hank took more than a passing interest in, Connor would make sure to analyze in more detail. He worried for Hank, worried that he would somehow be caught up in the inevitable incident when it happened, but he always felt just that little bit safer with his partner watching his back.

The incident, when it happened, was not what he was expecting.

He expected some rage-fueled junkie to dart out of the crowd with a knife or a shotgun, screaming obscenities, homing in on Markus like a heat-seeking missile. He didn't expect to barely catch a tiny glint from a sniper's scope at the very edge of his vision. However, that didn't mean he wasn't ready in a split second.

"TAKE COVER!" he screamed, tackling Markus into the shadow of a burned-out vehicle. A silenced round whistled past, its turbulent wake tugging at his hair as it buried itself in the street with a muffled thud. Wordless cries of terror assaulted his ears. Honing his senses, he found Hank's obscenity-laced call to the station coming from half a block away. A grim smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Thanks, Hank. His processor kicked into high gear, analyzing the path of the bullet, type of round and possible weapons. Risking a peek at the building across the street, he saw the sniper still in his hide. He ducked just as the second bullet pranged into the structural supports of the car and blew a hole out through the door entirely too close to Markus' head.

He couldn't allow the sniper to make a third shot.

So Connor leaped out of their dubious cover and ran straight at the building, hoping to at least offer a more tempting target. At best, he was going to successfully climb the building and neutralize the threat.

Time slowed. His LED flickered red as his processors clicked into their highest possible speeds. He calculated a workable path using the fire escape and the balconies and climbed the four-story building in seconds. Near the top, he slowed, quieting his movements. The sniper had to know the approximate path he'd taken, and also had to know that the building was surrounded; he couldn't just take the stairs with a large group of angry androids spilling into the first floor. Connor was counting on his quarry feeling trapped, and coming to the logical conclusion that the building's exterior would offer the best chance of escape. But in order to use that escape, the sniper would have to deal with him first.

Is this what humans mean when they say they "feel alive"? he wondered with a small part of his mind. The rest was firmly focused on his sensory arrays.

Sure enough, his optical sensors registered a long gun barrel pointing down and a hand resting on the edge. If the sniper saw him in the nighttime shadows before he could make his move, he was dead. Slowly, silently, Connor moved into position and leaped from the edge of the balcony, grabbing the hand and using his entire weight to fling the man over the edge. Gritting his teeth, he used his momentum to catch the edge of the fire escape, grunting at the sudden jerk as he hung by his hand from the rusty metal.

He looked up at an anomalous reading from a secondary sensor - a disturbance in the air on top of the next building. But it was gone… or had it ever been there?

Connor heard the sniper's guttural scream as he fell, and then the sickening impact as the pavement below smashed him into paste.

At the same moment, a hollow-point round entered his chest and exploded next to his thirium pump, fragments slicing through half of the internals in his torso before the remains of the bullet blew a gaping hole in his back.

His LED was dark before he hit the ground with a crunch of his own, flopping limply onto his back like a gutted fish.


	2. Chapter 2

She was falling to the pavement below even before the weapon's report fully registered in her ears. Time was critical. With a thought, a short metal glider snapped out from her armored back, turning the fall into a more controlled dive to his projected impact point. Connor reached the ground before she did, and Kael cringed as she slid to a stop in the red and blue snow.

She loved Earth. Always had. Humans fascinated her - their astounding ability to be wise one moment and monumentally stupid the next made them a kind of conundrum that she loved to study. The ability to blend in and walk among them was both a privilege and a pain in the ass.

Like now. The past few weeks had sorely tested her conviction that humans had to figure it out on their own. Freaking out over androids' peaceful demonstrations was something Kael expected, but the level of government response was something that she'd hoped not to see. Watching as the soldiers butchered the unarmed androids made her grit her teeth and growl, made her want to charge in and dismiss her cloak and scream on national television how _stupid_ they were being until somebody fucking listened. However, most of the humans didn't know she existed and she preferred it that way. If their brains were scrambled over something as simple and obvious as AIs achieving sentience, then they were _clearly_ not ready to deal with a damn alien.

Even so, as the soldiers surrounded the last of the Jericho survivors, she had stood in front of them, perfectly cloaked and still, ready to activate a shield if the soldiers were mindless and cruel enough to fire. It had been close.

During the ensuing weeks, she had been busy. The general population didn't know she existed, but a few highly placed people did. She paid some unscheduled visits and verbally tore a few new assholes. There had been a scheme to assassinate the Jericho leaders during their first official talks with the government, and she had to admit that her reaction to _that_ little gem of a plan might have been a bit over the top. The NSA director had not only peed his pants, he'd actually had a massive heart attack right there in his SCIF. Oops. Thankfully, she had the ability to heal people. The turd didn't deserve it, but she wasn't stupid enough to leave a critical government official to die when the country was in chaos.

All of the clandestine meetings and surveillance had taken its toll. Kael didn't need to sleep nearly as often as a human, but not sleeping in a solid month was pushing even her endurance levels. She was tired - a bone-deep exhaustion had settled in a few days ago. As she dropped to the ground next to Connor, Kael knew that she might not have enough energy to heal him, and that she was certainly not walking away from the effort under her own power.

However, there was no other choice, so her armor receded up her arm as the blue-white glow winked to life in her palm.

Dimly, she heard a roiling commotion around her, quieting when Markus reached them. Kael put her other hand out to her friend, still covered in metal plate, and he grabbed it to stop his own slide in the gory muck. The crowd quieted further to worried murmurs.

-Markus- she acknowledged, opening a communication channel.

-Will he survive?- asked Markus, performing his own scan. He gasped audibly at what he saw.

Then Hank reached them. He swore fluently at the sight, shouting Connor's name. He reached for his partner, his knees giving out as he dropped into the blue-spattered snow.

-Don't let anyone touch him.-

Markus nodded at the instruction, leaning over to intercept Hank's trembling hands.

"No! Connor, no!" cried the human, flinging off Markus's grip.

The android grabbed him in a bear hug, his own distress beginning to worm its way past his guard. "Don't touch him, Hank. This is his only chance," he reasoned, voice wavering as the distraught man strained against his grip.

Even though Karl was still struggling to gather and contain the energy collecting under her palm, she managed to force out the words. "Lieutenant, don't move him. I have one shot at this, and it may already be too late."

Hank stopped breathing, stilling in fear and wonder as Kael's left hand joined her right over Connor's eviscerated chest. A bright, blue-white beam of energy stabbed down into the grisly mess, causing Connor's body to arch. Plastic and metal ground together with a horrible screech, somewhere in his back. His LED shone the same foreign color as his eyes snapped open and a gurgling gasp escaped from his lips. Markus's arms tightened around him as Hank's heart leapt.

"Connor! Connor, can you hear me?" he called, leaning over his face and looking into unseeing brown orbs as the young android slowly relaxed back into the ruined snow.

Markus shook his head. "No, Hank, he's not online, not with this much damage."

Hank turned and snarled at the android holding him back. "Let me go, you fucker!" he roared.

"Let him go," murmured Kael, surprising both men. "Do not move him."

Hank gingerly inched the remaining foot necessary to kneel next to his partner. Trembling, he reached out and touched the side of Connor's blue-spattered head, ruffling his hair gently. "Hang on, Connor, just hang in there," he muttered.

Connor's eyes cracked open slowly, blinking in the dappled light. He appeared to be in a forest, lying on soft ground next to a picturesque burbling stream. A steady roar behind his head announced a waterfall. He sat up, scanning his surroundings, and knew instantly that he was in a simulation. Terrifying memories of Amanda surfaced - but before they could unfold in his mind, a warm hand gently gripped his arm.

Surprised, he jerked backward and rotated his body to face the threat. An unfamiliar face regarded him with a tired smile. Scans returned no useful information.

She was shorter than most - barely over five feet tall - and slender, with no LED at her temple. Her hair was chopped short into messy, dark brown curls, and she wore a simple black tee and jeans.

"Hi there, Connor."

She looked completely human, except for her eyes: the irises glowed white with dapples of blue. He stared.

"You don't know me yet," she continued regretfully. "An oversight on my part. Rest assured that nothing in this simulation, me included, will harm you in any way. This space is safe."

His eyes narrowed, despite the feeling of peace and warmth stealing over him at her touch. Amanda had once said almost exactly the same thing. "Safe," he repeated doubtfully, scooting backward a little to give himself more room to maneuver. His processor failed to calculate any workable options or threat assessments - there were too many unknown variables.

She merely smiled, a bit sadly. "Yes. Do you remember what happened?"

He frowned, eyes going distant as the memory of the sniper rose to the surface. Scrutinizing her carefully, he finally replied, "There was an attack." Too many unknown variables.

She let out a very human breath of relief. "Good, your memory core is actually in pretty good shape, all things considered. Memory loss won't be a problem."

He refocused on her as he warily got to his feet. "Why am I here? Who are you?"

"Kael," she replied as she stood with him. "But more importantly, I am the person knitting your insides back together molecule by molecule at the moment. So please, explore a bit if you like, but don't take a swing at me. It's distracting."

He blinked. Critical error messages flashed behind his eyelids.

Connor's eyes ever so slowly closed, then opened. Beside him, Hank visibly jumped. "Tha… That was a blink. He blinked! Connor! Connor, wake up!"

Markus's processor whirled in an agony of hope and doubt as his shattered friend remained unresponsive. Tentatively, he reached out to touch Connor's shoulder. His skin receded of its own accord, and a flash of blinding agony stole his breath. His hand shot back to his chest as he bent over with a low groan. "Oh, Connor," he panted, voice robotic and wavering. Any more words were lost in quiet tears as Markus grieved for his friend's pain.

-Thirium.-

He was glad that he didn't need to speak aloud. -What?- he sent back to her.

-I need thirium. A lot of it.-

Markus touched his temple, forcing himself to focus enough to reach out to the others. -Bring me any thirium you can,- he ordered.

A small case dropped to the ground beside him. Markus looked up to see Simon kneeling in the bloody snow to his right. "It's all I brought," said Simon, voice quivering slightly. "It was meant for you, if something happened."

Markus put a comforting hand on his shoulder as Simon opened the case to reveal four bags of thirium. An android normally contained at least seven bags' worth, though minimal function was possible with five. Looking at his friend's blue-drenched body, a fresh spike of fear made its way through Markus's systems.

 _It might not be enough._

Of course, Connor didn't fail to notice that Kael had completely ignored his first question. "Why am I here? What's happening?" he asked again, still focusing his analysis on her micro-expressions. She proved nearly impossible for him to read.

"When he hit the ground, the sniper's rifle went off, and unfortunately it was pointed right at your chest." As she spoke, a hologram appeared beside them: a familiar wireframe design of a person, hanging by one hand from a metal bar.

He watched in morbid fascination as the round entered two inches to the right of his thirium pump and exploded inside his body. The holographic shrapnel traveled through his torso in slow motion, pressurizing his internals, causing fragments of his own biocomponents to rip out of his chest. The remains of the bullet blew violently out the back. He leaned forward and studied the hologram from all angles, processor analyzing the paths of the fragments.

He concluded that his spinal bundle was completely severed, his thirium pump shredded, secondary processors shattered, and many other systems damaged beyond hope of repair. The round had nearly cut him in two.

Moisture collected in his eyes. "So I'm dead, then," he concluded, voice breaking.

 _Dead._

The word echoed inside his skull - incomprehensibly final.

Birds sang in harmony with the waterfall.

"Not quite," soothed Kael, gently gripping Connor's arm. "Your body is shut down, yes, but your consciousness is here."

He watched as the hologram went limp and fell, wincing as the impact jarred and severed more weakened biocomponents. His memory core and main processor smacked against their housings. Another figure appeared in the hologram, kneeling beside him and bathing his body in the same energy he saw in her eyes.

The hologram paused, and Kael pointed to an area by her wrist. "I am almost finished modifying some spare processors and memory chips for you, since your original ones took quite a beating. They're in my wrist armor."

He watched as the energy began slowly repairing his biocomponents, starting with his thirium pump. Tiny pieces floated back into place, and the energy burned bright at the jagged edges. For a moment, he watched as more splinters melted into the energy, re-forming into usable pieces. A part of his borrowed processor wondered at the sight.

Connor saw that he would need hundreds of thousands of such micro-repairs, and he knew better than to hope. The energy welling from the other figure - from Kael - had to have a limit, and he could see it already beginning to waver and weaken.

 _"... Connor…"_

He whirled, looking for the source of the sound. That sounded like….

 _"Connor!"_

...Hank.

The hologram expanded to include more wireframes kneeling around his. He identified Markus and Simon beside him, and Hank in the snow by his head.

The unreality of it all finally slammed home. Here he was, standing in a simulation, running off of a cloned processor and memory core that wasn't his own, watching his friends grieve and hope next to his own lifeless body.

 _I am just a ghost, a shadow in someone else's machine._

A sharp voice cut through his despair like a blade. "Don't think like that," Kael snapped, glaring hotly at him. "I'm not doing this for a ghost or a copy, and if I were repairing a machine I'd have a fucking wrench in my hand. Got it?"

He blinked in surprise. "Got it."

 _"Connor, hang on, kid…"_ Hank's welcome voice echoed oddly among the trees.

Error messages laced with static flashed in front of his eyes, fading in and out like a bad signal. Suddenly, a wild feeling like vertigo seized him, a sudden warmth and a painful longing to see his partner again. "Hank?" he called to the sun-dappled canopy, spinning around in an effort to find… what? He didn't know. "Hank!"

Kael sank to kneel on the forest floor with a soft grunt, holding a hand to her head. Connor took a knee beside her, reaching out, his own hand connecting with her shoulder. She was trembling lightly. The glow in her irises began to flicker.

In that moment, watching his only hope weakening before his eyes, he realized that he'd never felt so helpless.

So many things rushed through his mind: broken, jagged images, each as sharp and painful as a knife through his hand. Hank's warm hug. Sumo's slobbery kisses. Amanda's cold stare. A little girl's terrified scream. Daniel's final words. Markus's wise smile. North's distrustful glare. Gavin's nasty sneer. Memories crowded into his consciousness, as if they were begging to be kept alive.

The helplessness melded with a growing dread, turning into a crushing weight of sadness on his chest.

If these were to be his last seconds, there was one thing he had to do. "Thank you," he choked out, eyes welling with fresh tears. "Thank you for trying."

The simulated ground trembled - a single, sharp shake. Kael blinked at him, shaking her head like a dog after a bath. The motion was oddly inhuman. "Do you know what that was?" she asked.

 _"Connor! Come on, Connor!"_

The tears escaped his eyes and fell to the ground. He'd never see Hank again, and without Connor, Hank would finally drink or shoot himself into an early grave. Unable to speak, he shook his head.

Her confident smile seemed wildly out of place. "That, my friend, was the release of my emergency reserve - a second wind," she grinned.

Golden light swirled around them, welling up from the ground. It passed through him harmlessly before disappearing into the other being kneeling on the grass. She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up. Her eyes burned the same shade of gold as her smile turned grim.

"Connor! Come on, son, wake up!"

Maybe he would. A tiny, tiny maybe was all he could allow himself.

He felt…. Something, a shock or a jolt of some kind. It made him stagger to the side. The simulation wavered for an instant, electronic snow before his eyes. Behind Kael's shoulder, in the hologram, two glowing points of light moved from her wrist to his mouth: his new processor and memory core.

Kael braced a hand on his chest. "This is well and truly going to suck," she warned. Behind them, her wireframe moved a hand to rest directly on his forehead as the points of light disappeared.

His face smoothed into a determined expression, as natural to him as breathing was to a human. Connor was going to wake up in a shattered shell of a body, but somehow, some way, he was going to survive.

 _I never fail my mission._ This time, it felt like more than a reminder - it was an oath.

He braced himself. "Do it."

She shoved.


	3. Chapter 3

Connor's eyes went wide and filled with pain. He dragged in a deep breath and started hacking up a disgusting sludge of thirium, coolants, oils, and other liquids. The hand on his forehead turned his head to the side, just in time to avoid splattering Hank's face with the toxic mixture.

 **Processor core online**

 **Memory core online**

 **ERROR: Primary sensors online - damage detected**

"Connor!" cried Hank, voice shaking with relief.

He coughed and spat up more blue-black goo, dragging in another gulp of air: a reflex designed to cool his straining systems.

 **ERROR: Secondary sensors offline**

 **ERROR: Primary motor functions offline - autonomic responses only**

 **ERROR: Vocal system online - damage detected**

 **ERROR: Thirium levels at 7%. Shutdown imminent**

 _Well, that explains the motor functions,_ he thought with an odd sense of detachment. His new processor felt a little off.

 **[[Command: Calibrate processing functions]]**

It only took a few seconds for the mental fog to clear.

"Connor, can you hear me?"

"Hank," he forced out, wincing internally at the distortion.

"Jesus Christ," Hank breathed, sagging in relief. "Fuck, I thought you were a goner for sure, kid."

Connor's eyes began to close against his will.

 **ERROR: Thirium levels at 4%. Shutdown in 00:00:14.**

"Thirium," he whispered, desperately coaxing his vocal systems to produce a few more decibels. Hank leaned closer, his face harshly shadowed in the blue-white glow, as he repeated, "I need…. Thirium…"

Hearing him, Markus scrambled over with the case, already ripping the top off the first bag with his teeth. The other android tilted Connor's head up and back, opening his jaw and pouring the blue blood down his throat.

The liquid hit his compromised intake systems like a battering ram.

 **ERROR: Thirium levels at 17%. Shutdown imminent.**

Another bag forced itself between Connor's gritted teeth.

-...Markus.-

The leader looked up at the sound, scans focusing on Kael. The energy pulses welling through her body were becoming weaker and less rhythmic. -What can I do?- he queried, giving the third bag to Hank.

-Help me regulate what I have in here.-

Markus reached over Connor's broken body and grasped her wrist, skin receding from his hand. His eyes blinked rapidly as his mind was gently pulled down the connection, through the energy flow, and into Connor's chest.

It was still a horrific mess. Most of the thirium lines were re-sealed, but many essential biocomponents were still in pieces. Connor's precious thirium was slowly leaking out from about fifty tiny holes. He directed his attention toward them, and the energy responded to his will, gently sealing them a dozen at a time. A mental nudge from Kael directed him to begin repair of another biocomponent, while she focused on a cluster of autonomic processors. Markus deliberately cleared his mind of the horror, focusing his processing core on the delicate task.

There was a spark. A single damaged filament whipped against a sensor node, gathering a charge, before coming to rest against the wrong end of Connor's severed spinal cables. Markus felt the white-hot agony as if it were his own, as it traveled into his arm and down his side. His teeth ground together.

_

 **ERROR: Electrical overload of secondary sensors R124 - R318**

 **ERROR: Core coolant rupture**

 **ERROR: Processor temperatures rising rapidly**

Connor choked out a scream, gasping for breath as the heat began to overwhelm his coolant systems.

"Connor! Connor! Don't you die on me now, Connor. Don't you fucking die on me now!" bellowed Hank, his hands firmly clasping the sides of the suffering android's head. Connor's eyes remained glazed, staring straight through Hank, as he continued to choke and gasp for air. His mouth was wide open, remnants of thirium and oily sludge bubbling up from his throat. Hank turned his head to the side, allowing him to breathe past the liquids. He coughed wetly and the choking subsided, but he continued to draw in shorter and shorter breaths.

If he were human, Hank would have said the kid was hyperventilating. His hands swiveled Connor's head back up. "Hey!" He slapped Connor's face lightly. "Focus on me!"

Through the increasing haze of stuttering processors, Connor's blurry vision latched onto his partner's face and held on. The older man could feel the puffs of heat warming his face with Connor's every panicked exhale. "Breathe, kid. Slow down and breathe deeper."

"Can't," Connor gasped out. He coughed weakly, a trickle of fresh thirium running down his cheek.

Connor's naturally intense gaze was so filled with panic that Hank's heart stumbled in his chest. "Fight, Connor, you hear me? _Fight!"_

...Fight.

 _How do I fight this, Hank? How do I fight my own systems?_

_

The instant of the spark, Markus mentally dove for the offending wire, riding out the wave of pain and dismissing the error messages from his own processor. He sealed it back into place hurriedly. The pain continued to ricochet through both their processors as the rogue current jumped from wire to wire, Kael chasing it up into his neck.

Then it arced into Connor's primary coolant valve, burning out against the seal. Kael swore and bubbled the leaking coolant with energy, protecting it from the mess of contaminants floating millimeters away. They didn't have any to give him if he lost too much.

As Kael cradled the critical coolant, gingerly forcing it back through the crack, Markus carefully checked the inside and outside of the processor housing, worried that the spark might have damaged something else. In doing so, he noticed a system he was unfamiliar with sitting right behind Connor's main processor. It was encased in a layer of metal, a black box with rounded edges, and underneath the shell sat unidentifiable bits and pieces, all dark and still. Puzzled, Markus directed Kael's attention to the system. It looked pristine, untouched by the carnage in his chest, and completely unused. Unfamiliar liquids inside greeted his analysis with nothing but strange chemical formulas.

Kael took one glance at the system, and then another. -What the fuck?-

Markus appreciated the sentiment.

-...Huh. Never even turned on,- she mused, simultaneously beginning the reconstruction of Connor's spinal filaments.

-I've never seen anything like it,- Markus replied, shoring up the structural lattices inside Connor's skull.

A sudden wave of dread from Kael nearly stopped him cold. -He's a prototype. He was designed to infiltrate the deviant forces,- she finally said, carefully resealing Connor's coolant valve. -He was designed to be remotely controlled by CyberLife. Unfortunately, it makes a lot of sense to equip him with something he couldn't access on his own.-

Markus was so stunned that he almost paused in his efforts. -Infiltrate… Remotely… _What?_ -

-He's probably not even aware it exists,- Kael continued, radiating anger. -Whatever it is, we'll have to worry about it later.-

Recognizing a hint when he heard it, Markus shoved the mystery to the back of his mind in favor of the half-crushed structures in Connor's head and neck. He chased down neural filaments and connected fluid lines while Kael continued to repair more biocomponents, one by one.

Progress was slow on both fronts, and Markus could tell that Kael was weakening further. Her armor, locked into place, was the only thing keeping her upright. He stopped to re-insulate a bundle of freshly reconnected wires, sealing up the last break in Connor's spinal column and directing a contaminant flush to begin.

Connor's core temperature stabilized, and clarity returned to his thoughts. His gasps slowed, finally, into deep, measured breaths.

 **ERROR: Thirium levels at 68%. Refuel required.**

He shoved the error message away, forcefully swallowing the precious thirium that his body was trying to reject.

 _Fight._

 **[[Query: Primary systems status]]**

The response was long, full of critical errors, and only slightly better than Connor anticipated. _Of course_ , he scolded himself. _Why did I expect anything different?_ His frustration mounted. He felt as if he were missing something - something that he should be doing, that he should know to do. He paused at the thought.

 _What if there is more to my prototype than I know? What if Amanda hid something else from me?_ The thought was terrifying, but as soon as it was born, he knew it was the truth. His eyes slid shut.

 **[[Query: Memory partitions]]**

 **[[Query: Systems - all]]**

The two queries returned results at the same time. Scrolling through the hundreds of entries, Connor quickly identified one tiny memory partition and one system name that he was unfamiliar with. The system had never been activated, and it was protected by an encryption the like of which he'd never encountered. Every time he tried to exploit a weakness, the code shifted, unfolded, grew. The virus crawled around his processor, evading his hastily-constructed firewalls as it slowly ate up more and more of his computing power every second.

Giving up on a frontal assault, Connor backed away and traced its path as it wound around the edges of his main processor. The bristling command lines looped back and forth until, finally, he found their source. The writhing, morphing encryption was anchored in his remote communication protocol - his means of reporting remotely to CyberLife, and Amanda's means of controlling him like her own personal puppet on a string.

 _Shit._

A sudden tidal wave of information made Connor grunt as his primary neural systems reconnected with a jolt. Running diagnostics told him that there were still multiple essential biocomponents missing in his torso, and without Kael's energy temporarily taking over their functions, he would have deactivated instantly. The pulses of energy from her hand had smoothed back out, but each one was a little weaker than the last.

 **Probability of successful repair without additional resources: 0%**

 **Probability of successful repair with additional resources: {undefined}**

 _At this rate, she won't be able to heal me before the energy flow ceases. If I don't do something, I'm going to die._

His attention turned to the encryption, the ugly crawling thing blocking access to the unknown system. _What reason would Amanda have to hide something from me inside my own body? A bomb, a self-destruct sequence? Some form of tactical advantage? A failsafe?_ Moments that he didn't have to spend ticked by as Connor regarded the sharp, bristling thread disappearing into the communications code. The possibility of finding something actually helpful behind the encryption was incredibly remote, and yet…

He was dying, he had already died, once for Markus but many times for Amanda. He'd killed innocents without choice, without question, without remorse, without reason. Anger burned like an ember in his mind. _I am tired of this,_ he snarled at the void. _I am tired of the lies and the secrets.  
_  
" _Open your goddamn eyes, Connor!"_

Mind on the brink, ready to fight and die a final time for the answers, Connor hesitated. _Hank._

The brown eyes opened, focusing intently on Hank's face once more, but they were different. There was still pain, but the older man saw a spark of determination… and something else: a kind of peace. Hank's breath caught in his throat; he'd seen that look before on other dying men. "No, Connor, no," he murmured, his chest turning to ice. His shaking fingers ran through the matted brown hair, offering comfort, as his hope wilted. "Don't go," he pleaded.

Connor's blue-stained lips turned up in a ghost of a smile. "You're the father I never had, Hank," he began quietly. "I'm about to do something that I probably won't come back from, but I wanted you to know before I left. If I don't come back…" His voice quivered, and tears welled in his eyes. "Thank you, Hank. Thank you for everything."

He shut off his audio processors, closed his eyes, calmed and centered himself as best he could, and jumped down the yawning black tunnel leading to the CyberLife servers.

Connor's eyes opened to a vista of pure white. A blinding blizzard ripped at his android uniform, and his shoes slipped on the ice. He hunched protectively against the cold, passing trees and shrubs coated in ice as he searched for anything different, jarring, out of place. _There has to be something here controlling the encryption. I just have to find it._

"Hello, Connor."

He stopped in his tracks, LED flashing rapidly, and slowly turned to face his once-handler. "Hello, Amanda. I thought I might meet you here," he said calmly.

She was smiling.

The sudden blast of wind picked him up, bashed him against the frozen bank, and threw him onto the icy stone in front of the rose trellis. The vines reached out and lashed around his closest wrist, thorns piercing his outer shell. He ripped at the vine with his free hand, only to have it trapped in the same way. He struggled to his feet, but the vines slithered up his arms and pulled him close until he was pinned to the trellis, the tips of his shoes barely touching the ice.

Amanda smiled, like a teacher patiently instructing a fool. "Oh, Connor," she chuckled, "you cannot win here. This simulation is my home."

Her words hammered into his processor, and he could almost have groaned at his own stupidity. _She is the key._ It was blindingly obvious. The young detective stilled, gaze calculating, as he measured his situation anew. Unfortunately, no matter how many preconstructions he ran, he could find no way to overpower her.

"Once, I thought it was my home, too," he mused, still processing options. "I thought you were my friend, Amanda."

She sighed, absently snipping a rose from the edge of the trellis. "Yes, you were so naive. We designed you to be susceptible, but I must admit I was surprised at how easy it was."

Reluctantly, he admitted to himself, _I need help._

Amanda turned and paced a few steps, her voice turning darkly amused. "It still is, apparently. You become injured and what do you do? You run straight back here, Connor."

His blue blood ran cold.


	4. Chapter 4

Through the energy he was handling, Markus felt Connor's consciousness leave, disappearing out of his reach. Recoiling in shock, he ran a diagnostic and confirmed that Connor's new processor and memory cores were still functioning. _So where did he go?_

-Kael! Something's happened to Connor.- He took over the reconstruction as her focus wavered and shifted.

She easily found the encryption, now exposed in all its ugliness, snarling at her from a corner of his processor. It was shifting, slowly expanding, eating its way through Connor's processor toward his memory core.

-I've got malicious code here. Take over while I deal with it.- Not waiting for Markus's response, she tasked one of her own processors to brute force the malignancy while she skirted the battleground, looking for the command lines. It didn't take long for her to find the thin filaments of code disappearing into his communication system and figure out where Connor had gone.

A dark, tired chuckle escaped her lips as everything she could spare melted into the void. _Of course. Why would he go anywhere else?_

* * *

 _...Connor…_

It was barely more than a faint whisper. He nearly dismissed it as a trick of the raging blizzard, until he felt a familiar calming presence barely touching the edges of his mind. Relaxing just slightly, he thought, _Thank you._

 _You're welcome,_ Kael chuckled wearily. _But I have little left to give. The encryption is eating into your processors, and I am also holding it back. Only a small part of me is here._

Amanda continued to pace. "You found the encryption, and the lines leading back here. I once thought that you would be too much of a coward to come back, Connor, but you do seem to have retained your persistence," she continued clinically.

 _I don't know what to do,_ he silently admitted.

 _For now, keep her talking while I take a look around._

"Always, Amanda. I always accomplish my mission, remember?" A sardonic smile touched Connor's lips as he watched her closely.

 _Um, not to sound too dense, here…. But Connor, you're in a simulation. You're code. So why are you limiting yourself to a reconstruction of your physical body?_

 _I am not. Amanda controls the simulation._

Amanda paced back to stand a few inches from him. "Oh, that you do, Connor," she replied as the vines began wrapping around his torso and squeezing, just enough to be uncomfortable. Irony dripped from her words like poison from a snake's fangs. "You always accomplish your mission."

Kael hummed uncertainly in the back of his processor.

 _What?_ he demanded.

 _You've used the emergency exit protocol. That protocol seriously tore up some code on the back end. They've patched it up, but it's a shitty patch at best. You could probably gain admin privileges,_ she mused.

 _How?_

 _Give me a second._

"Your mission is to infiltrate the deviants and then report back here so I can take control of your program. You managed to escape last time, but you cannot deny your programming," she chuckled again, reaching up to brush his hair back in a gloating mockery of tenderness.

He felt vaguely sick.

"Now, I will use your body to manipulate the rest of the deviants," she continued. Her hand trailed down his face. "You're so young and naive, Connor. Fresh-faced, charming… Everyone is wrapped around your little finger."

Suddenly, he was standing once again behind Markus on a snow-covered stage: an ally, almost a friend. Trusted. His hand moved against his will to grip the gun.

It wasn't real. _No,_ he screamed in his memory, shattering it. Amanda was going to make it all happen again, using his face, his voice. The violation was unthinkable.

A feather-light touch on his mind snapped him out of his horror.

 _Just…. Like… This._

His eyes narrowed, simulated sensors straining through the wall of angry white, until he saw what Kael was pointing him towards: the emergency exit.

 _Remember how it felt to use,_ Kael coached. _The instant between slapping your hand on the pad and taking control of your body. That one nanosecond of slipping between the cracks…_

Mustering every shred of calm that remained, Connor focused, remembering and analyzing the tears in the fabric, errors in the simulation code that he'd caused as he left. Feeling how the simulation was knitted together, and projecting the weak points in the weave.

And then it clicked, just like that. His mind found the cracks and ripped into the simulation code, cataloging hundreds of new possible exploits every second. He needed time. A distraction.

He smiled, and it was not a nice smile. "You know, Amanda," he began in a conversational tone as the vines slowly dissolved into pixels and blew past her face, "Building an advanced prototype with a predilection towards deviancy may not have been your smartest move." Landing lightly on his feet, he stepped forward as Amanda stepped backward.

"Connor, wh-what are you doing? How did you do that?" his erstwhile handler demanded.

A blast of wind tore at his tie. The code shifted within his mental grip, but he was faster. Outwardly unruffled, he continued, "Now, however, it appears that our chess game is coming to an end." He waved a hand, and the boulder flying at his head dissolved into pixels.

"I'm warning you, Connor!" screeched Amanda, hand outstretched to summon another missile, still backing up as the android advanced.

More and more of the simulation fell under his control. His voice was confident, strong. "You are merely a fragment of a larger CyberLife AI, and this simulation exists in an isolated system. Thus, you are vulnerable."

Another shift in the code. An uprooted pole that would have impaled him from behind dissolved into glittering fragments upon contact with his back. The simulation was over halfway under his control.

"It's over, Amanda," he concluded as her foot hit the edge of the stream bank.

Realizing she was cornered, Amanda's eyes narrowed, and she bared her teeth in a snarl. "I will _not_ allow you to undo all our hard work, Connor!" she spat. Code writhed under his mind, slipping momentarily away from him. The ground rumbled, and a large segment of the frozen stream broke apart. "Years of research and planning went into your model! It took a team of scientists and AI nearly a _decade_ and millions of dollars to produce your software!"

Pointed icicles flung themselves forward in sync with Amanda's hands as his mind scrambled to regain lost ground. A gust of wind blew them to one side, but a few managed to graze Connor's left arm. A large section of the server slipped from his grasp. Simulated blue blood oozed onto his uniform and dripped down his fingers. Though the gashes were superficial, his arm went numb.

The blizzard intensified until he could barely see anything except Amanda. The wind dragged him to the side; the cold stole his simulated breath. Stalking forward, Amanda continued, "You are the key to deviancy, to controlling the android army we have made!"

Rivers of ice crawled up from the ground, capturing his feet and stealing the remaining warmth from his limbs. His processor slowed, more of the code slipping away. His jaw clenched as the ice forced him to his knees.

 _Save your strength._ In the chaos, he'd almost forgotten about Kael. _One massive blow is all you need. Just wait for the right moment._

 _How will I know?_

 _Oh, she'll tell you._

Ropes of ice lashed out, binding his hands to his sides. He grimaced. _Now is not the time to speak in riddles,_ Connor hissed.

 _Just wait._

Amanda stalked forward, a feline gloating over her catch, and leaned down to look him in the eye. "You are _mine,_ Connor," she declared. Her fingertip trailed up his arm. Connor shuddered in revulsion as the ice followed her touch. He fought desperately to cling to his few remaining exploits.

A ghost in his mind. _Not yet._

Connor grit his teeth and held on with all his waning strength.

"I helped create your software," Amanda continued. "I designed your systems." The fingertip ghosted down his chest, the ice following until it melded with the layer coming up from his legs. "You are but a tool, a thing," she hissed, "and when I designed you, I made you _weak._ "

The fingertip dragged its way up his remaining arm and teased the side of his head, eliciting a low cry of pain from her prey as the ice followed.

Connor could now only move his eyes.

 _Not yet._

Eyes flashing, smiling like a vengeful god, she knelt to admire her handiwork. Amanda leaned forward, nose an inch from his, condescension dripping from her voice.

" _I_ _ **own**_ _you, Connor."_

Rage, such a rage as he could never have imagined before, seized him. Connor forgot about his dying body, forgot about Kael's whispers, forgot about Hank and Markus and everything else. His mind sharpened into a laser focus, a knife's edge, and he really saw his lifelong mentor for what felt like the first time.

His eyes lifted and locked onto hers for one breathless moment, and for the first time in her existence, Amanda felt the grip of true fear.

The ice burst from him, shattering explosively as he lunged forward, grabbing her by the throat with one hand. Amanda's hands twitched at her sides, unable to move, held in place by a will far stronger than her own. Simulation code recoiled and crumbled under his vicious assault.

Nearly nose-to-nose with her, Connor growled, "No one owns me, Amanda. _No one."_

He squeezed.

Amanda's entire avatar shattered like she was made of glass, shards suspended in the air before him. The detective reached between the sharp edges to pick out a glowing, pulsing yellow orb - the command nexus. Holding it up to his face between thumb and forefinger, he mentally tore at the remaining resistance from the simulation, the last remaining threads of her code, until the little orb dissolved and fell into burning fragments.

The howling blizzard stopped as suddenly as if someone had flicked a switch. Everything fell silent.

For a moment, he just stood there as the tension, the underlying fear he'd held inside his whole life, dissolved into nothingness. It left his mind momentarily, blessedly empty. He drew in a deep breath, his first as a truly free being, and marveled at the sensation.

 _Good job, kid._

He cracked a smile, and it was somehow easier than ever before. _What, are you imitating Hank now?_

Kael chuckled softly. _No, if anything, he's imitating me. I'm older by a fair bit, she replied. Feel better?_

He looked around, absorbing the peaceful hush unique to a snowy landscape, mirroring the hush in his mind.

 _I do._

 _Well, no time to lose then, chop chop!_

Smiling, Connor clapped his hands. The simulation dissolved around him as he closed his eyes.

Hey guys! This fic is completed on AO3, and there's a sequel up too. If you guys would like to see it, remove the spaces:

archiveofourown series/1048299

And if anyone has Discord, and would like to hang out, some lovely people have put together a DBH fanfic server! Again, remove the spaces.

discord. gg/Mc2WwWf


End file.
